Epic, Microsoft raise $144 million in humanitarian relief funds for Ukraine via Fortnite

When it first launched the Resistance update for Fortnite, Epic Games announced it would be donating all the proceeds from the game between March 20 and April 3 to humanitarian relief organizations acting in Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion. 

And alongside Microsoft’s donation of all Fortnite proceeds made during that period on Xbox, this initiative helped raise a total of $144 million across five different charities. 

Epic expanded its list of supported organizations throughout the donation period, settling on a handful of proven charities that are providing emergency aid on the ground in Ukraine. This includes Direct Relief, UNICEF, UN World Food Program, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and World Central Kitchen.

Not only has Epic raised $144 million, but the company will not be waiting for the payment to be processed from its various platforms and partners. Instead, Epic has been donating periodically as the transactions have been reported to ensure the relief organizations get the funds faster. 

Within 24 hours of announcing this initiative, players around the world helped raise $36 million for the cause, which ballooned to $70 million after five days and over $100 million during the second week. You can read the full documentation of Epic’s plans and approach to these donations on the official Fortnite website.